Not so Sunny in San Diego

Last weekend Dylan and I (by the way, he's the boyfriend/travel expert for many of my weekend adventures) had an extremely lucky chance to take a real vacation to the sunny Southern coast of California. Again, a convenient set of work obligations for Dylan the following week was just the motivation we needed to Expedia some cheap flights, take a precious vacation day out of the office, and jet off for a weekend of sand, surf, and sun.

Well, spoiler alert -- (in case the title of this post didn't clue you in) --- we actually spent three very unsunny days in San Diego. Yes, drought-stricken, heat-waving SoCal offered us three days of clouds, repeated sweatshirts, and even a few much needed raindrops. Luckily, it is still very possible to pack three days full of activities in this border city without being totally downtrodden by the lack of rays. We even spent some time in the water...up to our knees....wincing with cold....but still.

A few logistics of our whirl-windy getaway - we were both flying out of the NYC area, but due to our respective mileage plans (he's on American, I was trying to use up miles on United) I flew out of Newark while Dylan chose JFK. I managed to sneak away from the office about an hour early on Thursday and landed at LAX before midnight (although my body didn't quite feel that way). LAX? Weren't we spending our vacation in San Diego? Yes. And these two cities are not as close as one might presume. But, the costs savings and time convenience of the flights happened to offset the commute to San Diego in this case, which can vary to about one hour forty minutes on a magical fantasy day to probably 4 hours plus, traffic dependent. And LA/SoCal traffic is definitely as bad as they say it is. There's no predicting it either - "rush hour" is a loose term that can spring up at any inconceivable hour of day or night. We had a pretty smooth go of it both directions closing in around two and a half hours from LAX to our hotel in La Jolla, a fairly ritzy suburb of San Diego near the private high schools Dylan has to visit for his admissions job.

Friday morning, after a poor night of sleep near the airport and a semi-cranky drive south, Dylan decided he wanted to take me to his favorite place to run in San Diego, Torrey Pines. This state park area was just minutes from our hotel in the University district of La Jolla (pronounced La Hoya but way more fun to say the other way).  Torrey Pines is an incredible landscape of rugged, orangey-red rock and cliff formations, scrubby, desert-worn trees and brush, and vast views and steep trails down to the gorgeous expansive sea and a lovely, not-too-crowded beach. We first challenged ourselves by starting at the Torrey Pines Golf Course and running through the visitors center and down the main road into the park area, which winds several hundred feet down to sea level, before spinning on our heels and charging back up. I'll admit I was struggling but it felt good to get all the travel off our backs with a hard slog up the hill.

Beach friends | Torrey Pines Beach 

From there, there are a series of fairly short (.25 - 1.5-mile) hiking trails that end up circling back to the main parking lot. Some end up on high vistas overlooking the jagged cliffs with their erosion-splattered cracks running down to the sea, while some wind down through fissures in the cliffs to drop you gently on the beach itself. Dodging hikers is certainly a challenge but luckily the cloudy skies and lower than average low-60s temps kept the crowds away, and we were even able to splash through the waves up to our knees for a bit. It was a great beach for swimming, with perfectly-sized waves for jumping, but unfortunately it was just a bit too early in the season. I may have droned on about Torrey Pines but that is only because it was a spectacular slice of nature just minutes from our door, and a great way to exercise and explore on vacation. We ran again on Saturday, exploring different loop trails, and I got excited for a minute about an annual half marathon that winds through those same scrubby pines. It's not the most well-known attraction in the area, so I think it deserves a little extra oompf here!

This old metal supply building is
incorporated right into
the ballpark seating

After treating ourselves to a soothing massage (I'm telling you....vacation) we headed into downtown San Diego for a good ole American baseball rivalry. The San Diego Padres played nearby neighbors LA Dodgers in a chilly, fairly inactive game. But it doesn't really matter, as we were up in the bleacher seats with 25-oz beer cans, pretzels, peanuts, and a completely sold out stadium of nearly equal Dodgers and Padres fans. The exciting thing about baseball games at PETCO Park is that you are literally right in downtown. You can be eating at a restaurant up the street and actually see right into the ballpark, from the stands to the lights to the dirt and turf. They also kept some original buildings when constructing the park, and managed to incorporate them right into the modern bleachers, bars, and food stands. While the rivalry was captivating, the game itself wasn't, and it also got pretty cold in our flimsy sweatshirts, so we didn't manage to stay all nine innings and ended up back at the hotel bar with a pizza delivery menu...in other words, the perfect evening.

Doner Fries | Amplified Aleworks

On Saturday, refreshed from an early night and another fabulous run at Torrey Pines, we met up with an old friend of mine who recently graduated from UCSD, whose campus is right in La Jolla. Connor took us on a scenic route to the hip, student-filled town of Pacific Beach, where we enjoyed massive, meat-covered Doner fries and craft brews on a sunny patio with an ocean view at Amplified Aleworks. The communal vibe and big plates, along with the pleasure of catching up with an old friend, made for a pleasant and filling afternoon.

After a lingering lunch and a quick downpour, Dylan and I headed to downtown San Diego to check some more attractions off our list. We realized it was too late to enjoy a full day at the San Diego Zoo, but explored the rest of Balboa Park, a sprawling collection of museums, artists venues, and landscaped lawns right in the heart of downtown. With museum closing time drawing near, we impulse-bought tickets to the science museum and joined small children in exercising wind turbines and blowing giant bubbles. The disjointed exhibits failed to capture our adult attention spans for long, but we did walk through an empty artists exhibit area and Spanish colonial-style promenade where we observed a major prom photoshoot.  Continuing on a downtown tour, we spent the evening in San Diego's Gaslamp Quarter, the main restaurant and bar scene downtown. A fancy, three course dinner outdoors at Allure Restaurant with plenty of entertaining people watching was the perfect end to the evening - although I found the meal a bit too heavy and indulgent after the afternoon of beer and french fries!

Team Flamingo | San Diego Zoo

Good morning sir!

A trip to San Diego wouldn't be complete without a visit to the San Diego Zoo. We woke up early Sunday to ensure plenty of animal time before Dylan graciously drove me back to LA for my flight home. It was still fairly overcast, but plenty warm, and coupled with our early arrival, we enjoyed a blissfully empty trip through the zoo. The pandas - normally a 45-minute wait to be shuffled past the hunkering creatures for a few seconds - were lazily eating their bamboo breakfast as just a handful of people watched in utter joy. Other highlights of the massive, truly world-class zoo were flamingos, which paced back and forth in perfect formations of twenty gangly bobbing heads; a baby jaguar pup imitating every move of its mother; and identifying several giraffes based on their unique spot patterns. While zoos often tug at my heartstrings with the listless animals as far out of sight as they can be, it was impossible not to enjoy the wonderful selection of creatures this particular zoo has to offer. I took comfort in the fact that it is a premier scientific institution that does as much as it can to mimic the wild for its animal habitants. The zoo is a spendy attraction - $48 for an adult - but a basic ticket includes rides on the gondola that zips overhead from one end of the zoo to another, as well as various guided bus tours. We took charge of our own walking journey in order to maximize viewing time before getting on the highway, but did manage to get to the Sky Train while the line was still relatively short to jet over to the polar bears.

View of Balboa Park from the Zoo Gondola

While it may seem ambitious to fly six hours across the country for a very quick three-day weekend, this getaway vacation felt much longer to us. The weather wasn't perfect for lazy beach time, which actually worked out in our favor as we pushed ourselves to explore more of San Diego's downtown cultural attractions and various towns and neighborhoods in the area. Tacked on to the front end of Dylan's work trip, this was a great balance of business and relaxing time together in a new destination, and re-energized me for the chunk of working time until Memorial Day....only two more weeks!